V-day

I totally missed posting yesterday, I was just too busy with our band meeting about our upcoming Disney trip! Yeah!! tomorrow we leave, and the band follows the next day. So excited to be taking a vacation and that I actually feel good. Here's hoping that the prednisone that I've been taking will last through the trip. I haven't felt this good in a long time. Unfortunately, I took the last pill today.......mind over matter is what I'm thinking.

So, Steve and I went out Saturday for V-day. We knew we wouldn't have time once the week started. I tricked (haha) into going to Handpicked (one of my new favorite stores!) and I hand picked me out a gift. It's a beautiful silver love knot necklace with earrings to match. We don't usually buy stuff like that, but I combined it for my birthday.....and didn't feel guilty one bit.

He and Stevie surprised me at work yesterday with a balloon, rose, candy, and lunch. So, so sweet! What did he get, you ask? nothing.....he got me....poor thing~HA

Seriously, though. When you are married to the right person, V-day should be everyday! Steve shows me how he loves me in so many ways every single day. Sometimes, I wonder if I do enough for him, but I know that doing for me and kids brings him pleasure. I feel so blessed to have him.

My dad use to tell me that he prayed for my spouse before we ever knew who he was (I do this for my kids, too). I can tell that God answered dad's prayers. He sent me the perfect person for me and while I wish I had been patient and waited on God's timing; He turned my mistakes into good in spite of my impatience.

I'm so blessed to have a man who loves me. Our marriage is stronger today than ever, and we are cemented together because of our mutual love of God and our want to do His will. I love you, Steve. Words are not adequate, and I'm happy that you don't need them to know that I trust you with my heart because I could never do justice to the man you are.

love

Love has many faces.

There's the love a mother feels when she sees her newborn baby...that feeling that you could never love another living thing as much as you do that little person.

There's the love that a father feels when he sees his daughter move into a college dorm knowing that he must allow her to fend for herself and find her own way.

There's the love that a newlywed couple has when it's fresh, and then as it is renewed with each passing year.

And then, there's the love that comes after being married for seventy years and that dear one dies, that feels as though you will be torn in two simply because half of you is gone.

We've witnessed this love, and Steve saw it fresh and anew the other day.

This was his view........

A little ninety year old woman standing, facing her husband's fields where side-by-side she had labored with her one and only.....holding his cap up as though she could still see him there and was waving to him. Perhaps she did see him there. Oh, Mrs. Louise, we love you so.....and we know that you miss Calvin more with each passing day. One day, precious lady, Jesus will call for you, too and we all know that Calvin will be the one at the gate holding it open for his love. But He leaves you here to be an example to everyone around you of what TRUE love and faithfulness means.

t-ball

We went to Suwanee this past weekend to see Sam and Jack in their last regular season t-ball game. Sounds odd, huh? They are 4 and 5, and their league has play-offs. Has the world gone insane? I think so, but that is another post for another time because, let me just say right now, that my two nephews are the cutest, funniest 4 and 5 year olds around.

If there were penalties in t-ball, Jack definitely would have gotten the dreaded "excessive celebration" call when after being tagged out at home, he still insisted he touch the plate and then did a whole fist pumping, both hands raised celebration dance all the way to the dug-out. He's too much!

By far the funniest moment was when Sam scored and as we cheered him on, he flipped us off!! Only, he was REALLY just saying, "We're number 1", but with his middle finger! Poor Tracy was mortified, I was laughing my tail off (not literally, of course, because if THAT worked, I'd do it all day!), Shea was hiding in shame, and Sam was oblivious.

Speaking of Sam, I forgot to mention that the child is brilliant! I honestly would hate to have him in my first grade class because what would you do with him???? He can read, write legibly, count, add, and he has countless other skills----keep in mind that this is Oct. and he is in Kindergarten! By the time he gets to first grade, he'll be able to teach it. It's SCARY.

So, great time with those boys............cannot wait to see them again!!!

cockroaches

I HATE cockroaches. They are the most disgusting bug on the planet to me! Which is why, the book I want to talk about today was offputting to me, at first.

Martina, the Beautiful Cockroach by Carmen Agra Deedy and illustrated by Michael Austin

I was turned onto this book by the illustrator, Michael Austin, who was kind enough to come and read to my class during Real Men Read. When you open the book and see the beautiful array of colors and impressively drawn characters, you just want to keep turning the pages. It was during this perusing of the pictures that I actually began to read the story.

The story is about Martina who is looking for a suitable mate. Martina gets some good advice from her grandmother about the temperament for a prospective husband. She originally thinks that the advice is crazy, but she follows it and soon learns that, indeed, a person's (or in this case, a bug's) true colors come about when things don't go as planned. Martina learns that the old adage, "beauty is only skin deep" is, in fact, true.

As one reads the story of Martina, one forgets that the book is about bugs and begins to think of the characters as people. Since children enjoy bugs, though, the author's use of voice combined with the illustrator's use of amazing talent to create these beautiful creatures, make this book a must-have for any school and /or classroom library.

Teaching ideas:

• This is an obvious choice for character education.
• This book is a Cuban folktale. Compare and contrast this story with a folktale from another country (or perhaps a Native American story) using a Venn diagram. Students can use that diagram to organize a persuasive paper on: What are the best qualities for a friend to have? or Why the advice of older people is better than that of a younger person. Remember that when writing a persuasive piece the student doesn't have to agree with the stand they take, just sell it to others.
• Research different species of cockroaches (ewww).
• Make a word cloud of adjectives from the book.
• Choose one of the other suitors in the book and write an alternate ending pretending that Martina had chosen that particular suitor.

Many thanks to Michael for putting me onto this book. He is a really nice man who is super talented, and drove across Atlanta to read to my class (I didn't know him, had just found him on the internet). More talented people need to be like him!